The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of apparatus for controlling the movements of a reed carriage carrying the reed of a warping machine during warping a package composed of successive adjacent warp sections wound upon the warping drum or warping reel of the warping machine.
In contrast to beam warping, during warping it is known to wind-up upon a warping drum or reel the total number of threads desired for a given warp in the form of adjacently situated warp sections. Thereafter, these warp sections can be simultaneously wound in their full width upon a weaver's beam or back beam or presented to a sizing machine.
To this end the threads withdrawn from the packages of bobbins of a bobbin creel are each delivered by means of a stop motion and a yarn brake to a warping reed. The warping reed arranges the threads in the desired warp section-width and set of warp. Furthermore, owing to the continuous and stepwise displacements imparted to the warping reed in the lengthwise direction of the warping drum there is accomplished, on the one hand, the shifting of the deposition of the warp section-layers upon the warping drum in accordance with the feed during winding, and, on the other hand, the displacement of the application of the warp sections in each case by the width of a warp section upon the warping drum after reaching the desired depth of the warp section and warp length, respectively.
Control of the deposition of the warp section-layers upon the warping drum or reel at an inclination along the cone or the free side surface of the warping section which previously was subjected to the warping process is accomplished by means of an adjustable change-speed gearing which transmits the rotation of the warping drum to a reed carriage-displacment spindle. A reed carriage engages with the threading of such spindle, the reed carriage supporting the reed, and owing to the rotation of the spindle is displaced in the lengthwise direction of the axis of the warping drum. In order to determine the point of application of a warp section which is to be wound at the warping drum and for shifting such point of application, respectively, following the winding of a warp section in the desired length into the position for the next warp section, as a general rule heretofore the reed carriage was disengaged from the displacement spindle and after displacement thereof along the spindle was again brought into engagement with the threaded spindle in the position desired for the next warp section.
Such displacements of the reed by the reed carriage, from one point of application to the other point of application, was carried out heretofore manually, preferably with the aid of specially developed mechanical warp section width-adjustment devices, the purpose of which was to locate in the correct position the different points of application without any visual functions being required which could be associated with errors. Nonetheless the conventional prior art methods and the devices developed for such shifting or displacement of the reed are associated with a series of error sources which appreciably can reduce the quality of the warped package. The warping of a faultless warp upon a warping machine requires an extremely exact depositing of the warp sections. Application of the first warp section at which the first thread of the warp section at the side of the cone must be directly fixed at the transition between the cone and the cylindrical part of the warping drum at such warping drum, can be accomplished by the operator with the necessary precision if the work is carried out carefully.
On the other hand, the application of the following warp section and all further warp sections, each shifted or displaced by the width of a warp section, upon the drum is however considerably more difficult and delicate. If, for instance, the first thread of a new warp section is applied in a faulty manner at a spacing from the last thread of the preceding warp section, and which does not exactly correspond to the spacing of neighboring threads within the warp section, then with too great spacing there is formed at a fabric produced from such warp, a passage or gap at the corresponding location, resulting in rejection of the manufactured goods. On the other hand, if the spacing is too small, then during the winding operation marginal threads of the new warp section can overlie marginal threads of the preceding wound warp section, which then during beaming of a warp package having such flaws can lead to thread rupture.